Action-A-Day 1/25/18: No More Parental Rights for Rapists UPDATE

ACTION: Call your State delegation and ask that they support Maryland Senate Bill 0002 which would allow courts to terminate parental rights for rapists and is being called the Rape Survivor Family Protection Act.

BACKGROUND: The Rape Survivor Family Protection Act has been brought before the Maryland General Assembly and has FAILED TO PASS 9 times. This bill would allow women who conceive as a result of rape to terminate the parental rights of their rapist. Presently, Maryland is one of only a handful of states that does not already have a process in place for this. The Maryland General Assembly has returned to Annapolis and Governor Hogan is very publicly pushing for this legislation to be passed. The bill received a favorable finding from the Maryland Senate's Judicial Proceeding committee and is likely to come up for a vote in the VERY near future. Senator Hough (District 4) and Senator Ready (District 5) are both on the Judicial Proceedings committee which gave the bill unanimous support.

SAMPLE SCRIPT: My name is _________ from (zip code). I am calling to ask Senator_____________ to support the bipartisan Rape Survivor Family Protection Act and push for the bill to be voted on quickly. 10 years is too long to turn this bill into law. Thank you in advance.

DON’T KNOW WHO REPRESENTS YOU? YOU CAN FIND YOUR FEDERAL AND STATE ELECTED OFFICIALS BY ENTERING YOUR ADDRESS ON WWW.COMMONCAUSE.ORG